The Makeup Monologues

A little over a year ago, I ordered about a hundred dollars' worth of e.l.f. from their website. I'm still finding new/old things from that order as I dig around the nooks and crannies of my tiny bathroom. One thing I dug out recently was this Radiance Enhancer in the shade Spotlight. It's a highlighter pen that dispenses from one of those infernal click-brushes. Oh, how I hate click-brushes. They get gunky and never dispense the right amount. Anyway, you crank the bottom and then pink shimmery goo oozes out of the middle of the brush. See? Light pink, shimmery liquid. It's kind of thick, I guess, thicker than your average liquid highlighter. It has actual visible chunks of shimmer in it, though they are dispensed evenly. It's worth noting that I also own the shade called "Spotlight" in their shimmering facial whip, and that they're not the same. The facial whip Spotlight is a frosty white pearl colour. Here's the Ra...

I've always shied away from bronzer because of how pale I am. When I saw this essence all-in-one "bronzing highlighter" targeted supposedly for "blondes with lighter skin", I figured I'd give it a lark. This bronzer has a highlighter shade, two blush and three bronzing shades. It's a cute design, but not particularly effective for trying to apply one at a time. Another thing to note: it smells like sweet coconut milk! I'm a total sucker for scented powders, if my affinity for Anna Sui is any hint. The highlighter and blush shades (I layered the blushes on top of each other into one swatch) are very chunky and flaky, hard to pick up with my finger. The bronzing shades are a little smoother. Here they are all smooshed together into one swatch. And here's what the powder looked like once I smooshed my finger across every shade... I'll admit, I was kinda scared to put this on my face, because it's very warm-toned. I a...

Time to review my only holy-grail makeup product- the one category that I'm not constantly searching for a replacement or the next for, because what I have is perfect for me. That product is highlighter, specifically theBalm's Mary-Lou Manizer. Fun fact: I use this as my on-the-go compact mirror of choice, and every time I whip this out, I get at least three different people asking, "is that Taylor Swift?" Mary-Lou is a heavenly fine-milled powder, with a pan even bigger than your average pressed setting powder. This babe and I are gonna spend many lovely years together. The powder itself is a champagne shimmer with a breathtaking golden sheen. When applied with a fluffy brush to my cheekbones, it lights up my face with a soft glow. I always get compliments that my skin looks great ever since I've started using this product- and I have terrible skin. It looks good applied to the collarbone, but can accentuate flyaways and is a bit too dark for m...